Gerald Holmes’ leadership, maturity key to Michigan State's 2017 turnaround

EAST LANSING — Gerald Holmes has only carried the ball 52 times this season.

The senior running back from Flint has 162 yards rushing. He has scored just one touchdown.

Before the season, Holmes said, he set lofty goals for himself. Inside the Duffy Daugherty Football Building Monday night, he could only shake his head. He wasn’t about to share what those specific goals were, but added that it’s pretty obvious looking at the stats that he didn’t achieve what he wanted to during his final season in East Lansing.

That was from a personal standpoint. Secondary goals, he called them.

Stats and accolades aren't a good measure of what Holmes wanted to accomplish this season.

The win/loss record is. And the Spartans are 7-3 and bowl bound with two weeks remaining in the regular season.

“It feels good,” Holmes said of surpassing the Spartans’ 3-9 showing in 2016.

Flashing a wide grin, he said, “I feel like I can breathe again.”

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Holmes said Michigan State football lost its identity last season. What was once a family atmosphere, loaded with trusted leadership and joyous times, was a shell of itself as the program went through a tumultuous offseason of arrests, accusations and departures.

Now, Holmes said, the championship attitude is back.

“It was a big deal,” he said. “I feel like, over the summer, we built that obviously through the workouts but just kind of just talking and the team building so I feel like that played a big difference in the turnaround. You’ve got to be able to trust guys and talk to people on your team that you battle with.”

That credit can go to Holmes.

During the summer, the senior approached coach Mark Dantonio with an idea. He wanted to host player-only meetings each Friday. It would be a chance for teammates to share their thoughts, feelings and grievances with each other.

The program shut out the media during the offseason. Team leaders decided the squad should put down their cellphones and focus on in-person communication. They turned away the outside world. Holmes said that’s when the players began to take charge of this thing that had gone so badly off the tracks.

Dantonio agreed.

“I think Gerald’s leadership was very important, especially last spring and all the things we were going through,” Dantonio said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “He sort of rallied everybody and got people organized and took a step forward in terms of what he was doing from a leadership standpoint.

“He’s played a lot of football for us here in the past number of years. So I appreciate all that he’s done and respect him and his work ethic.”

Asked Monday about those meetings, Holmes chuckled, saying the team hasn’t had one in a while. He doesn’t think they need them anymore. The locker room is now an open forum, he said, and, more importantly, the fun is back.

That, of course, comes with winning.

Fifteen seniors will run out of the tunnel at Spartan Stadium one last time Saturday when the Maryland Terrapins come to town. Most of those 15 have been a part of a Rose Bowl title, a College Football Playoff and one of the best eras of MSU football.

Sometimes, admittedly, that gets lost on Holmes.

Pasted on to his locker is a magnetic rubber mat. It features a giant photo of him. On the right-hand side, there are logos indicating his accomplishments. It’s right in front of his face. Every day, he said, he opens the door to that locker.

He rubbed his chin Monday night and pondered.

“I haven’t really thought about it,” he admitted. “But now that I think about it, yeah, I have four wins against Michigan. So much happens each week, each day. When I get a chance to sit down and think about it, it’s going to hit home. Man, I’ve actually been a part of a lot of stuff.”

In 2013, Holmes redshirted as his teammates went on to beat Ohio State for a Big Ten championship. He watched from the sidelines as the Spartans outlasted Stanford 24-20 in the Rose Bowl.

He said that was his most memorable season on campus. And he never played a snap.

That tells you all you need to know about Holmes.

“The whole year was my favorite memory,” said Holmes, who was named scout team offensive player of the week twice. “It was an amazing year to come in.”

Linebacker Chris Frey came to MSU a year later. He played in all 13 games as a true freshman. He is on the “leadership council” with Holmes. He said his goal in college was simply to start. After 2016, it turned into so much more than that.

Frey helped Holmes bring the locker room together.

The results are now at the top of Frey’s list of accomplishments, too.

“I feel like we were divided last year a little bit, but from the start of this offseason throughout the entire year, I think we’ve done a very good job as a senior class and as a leadership council to bring this team together as one,” Frey said. “That was the main focus, and I think we did a very good job of that.”

Senior center Brian Allen also pointed to the summer as a turning point. He said the Spartans got back to working hard, being humble and loving each other. The team “re-bought in,” he added.

“It’s been fun, other than a couple bumps along the way but we really have had fun this year,” Allen said. “The season’s not over and we’re just excited to make more memories.”

Are you starting to see a pattern?

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Selfless, that’s what Dantonio says about Holmes and this senior class. It’s easy to see why.

Holmes came to campus as potentially the next big thing in the MSU backfield. Standing 6-foot-1, 231-pounds, Holmes was considered the No. 16 “big back” in the country by MaxPreps.com. A three-year starter at Carman-Ainsworth High School in Flint, Holmes rushed for 1,023 yards on 94 carries during his senior season, including five 100-yard games. He scored 14 touchdowns.

He knew he’d be forced to share time with Jeremy Langford, Nick Hill, LJ Scott, Madre London and others.

He didn’t care.

Dantonio took a chance on him, making Holmes the first recruit of the 2013 class despite a foot injury that limited him during his junior campaign. That always meant a lot to him, Holmes said.

Holmes has faced his fair share of adversity. His mother, Shalena Williams, committed suicide when he was just 5 years old. His city is going through a water crisis, something that directly affects his own family. His grandmother passed away the day before MSU played Notre Dame in South Bend last fall.

All he did was rush for 100 yards on 13 carries against the Fighting Irish, including a 73-yard touchdown run to help lead the Spartans to victory.

He said his father, Gerald Holmes Sr., is coming to East Lansing this week for his birthday. Holmes turned 23 on Wednesday. That’s when emotions will really start to sink in, Holmes said. Especially when it comes to his mother and all she has missed out on.

“I’m thinking about it a lot,” he said of his mother and grandma. “I’m not going to try and be sobby, we have a game still, but I’ll be wishing they were here. See, my work, at the end of the day, I did it for them as if they were here.”

Holmes isn’t letting the finality of it all set in just yet. Monday, he danced and joked around with his teammates after practice. He is soaking it all in. Even a 48-3 loss the Saturday prior wasn’t going to get his spirits down.

“It’s been a ride,” he smiled. “It hasn’t always been smooth. It’s been bumpy with ups and downs. It’s been a blessing to come be a part of a program like this … I’ve played for great teams, and it’s made me a man coming through here …

“We got this thing back on the tracks.”

Contact Cody Tucker at (517) 377-1070 or cjtucker@lsj.com and follow him on Twitter @CodyTucker_LSJ.